


Dial My Number

by Kkaepsongiya



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, Communication, Crying, Established Relationship, Fights, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, Lack of Communication, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Making Up, i guess lol, norenmin are assholes for most of this but they don't mean it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-27 03:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17758808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kkaepsongiya/pseuds/Kkaepsongiya
Summary: “Oh c’mon, Hyuck, you look like a kid admiring his hero! There’s no way you two are dating.” And okay, that kinda stung. He didn’t know what was worse, his friends thinking he was lying about dating Yukhei or his friends thinking Yukhei was out of his league (not that he didn’t already know that but that didn’t make it hurt any less).





	Dial My Number

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a long time ago but was too lazy to read through it and edit and tbh I still haven't really edited this so if it sucks, sorry lmaooo

If you had told Donghyuck a year ago that he would be in a year-long relationship with his high school crush, he would’ve scoffed at you. 

If you asked his friends about Donghyuck’s year-long relationship with his high school crush, they would laugh.

In the two months since their first semester as college students started, Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin had easily become Donghyuck’s best friends. They had been placed in a suite on the east side of campus, Jeno and Jaemin sharing a room and Donghyuck sharing his with Renjun. They had all hit it off immediately from first meeting and had been thick as thieves ever since. The only thing that they had a problem with, however, was Donghyuck’s boyfriend. 

You see, the three had never met Donghyuck’s boyfriend. 

Donghyuck had been the first to move in at the beginning of the semester and by the time any of the others had shown up, Yukhei was long gone. The older boy also hadn’t been able to visit over the two months they’d been in school—his own school was an hour away by train and he was busy with his own schoolwork. Donghyuck was sad about not being able to see his boyfriend but he understood; even though Yukhei was generally clueless like a puppy, he was majoring in chemical engineering and he took his work seriously. Donghyuck himself was only majoring in wildlife biology and he had a large workload so he understood that Yukhei couldn’t just drop everything for a short visit. 

To make up for this, though, they facetimed each other a lot. They promised each other time every Tuesday and Thursday, no matter what they had to do, they would call for at least an hour, though it was always longer than that. Sometimes they would study or do homework, not talking but keeping the call going as long as possible, taking comfort in being able to see the other. Renjun had witnessed one such event and, really, that’s what started this whole problem. 

A month into school, Yukhei and Donghyuck had a homework session, only really talking for short periods of time but mostly staying quiet and working. When they finally ended the call, Renjun—who had stayed in the room to work on his own homework—had made a comment that made Donghyuck laugh. 

“I can’t believe you and your friend just facetimed for an hour without even speaking. You guys are nerds.” If he wasn’t used to his personality, he would think Renjun was being mean but he knew the older boy didn’t really mean it. 

“That was my boyfriend, you nosy ass,” was his reply, finishing up his math homework and beginning to tidy up his desk. When Renjun didn’t snarkily reply, Donghyuck turned to look at him, questioning the older’s furrowed brows. 

“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend?” He had a weird look on his face but Donghyuck just shrugged it off, getting ready for bed. 

From there, the problem grew. 

When Renjun announced the existence of Hyuck’s boyfriend over breakfast the next morning, Jeno and Jaemin looked scandalized, the latter voicing his annoyance at not knowing earlier. They demanded to see pictures and—if Hyuck’s being honest—this is where the problem  _ really _ started. As gay as he was, Yukhei acted almost obnoxiously hetero sometimes and it showed in their photos together. Looking through the pictures, Jeno commented that they looked more like bros than boyfriends to which the other two agreed. While Donghyuck would admit that their photos together looked a lot like just two dudes being bros, he knew that the two of them showed affection differently when they were together: kissing, holding hands, etc. He voiced that to them and, in return, got noises of disbelief. 

“Oh c’mon, Hyuck, you look like a kid admiring his hero! There’s no way you two are dating.” And okay, that kinda stung. He didn’t know what was worse, his friends thinking he was lying about dating Yukhei or his friends thinking Yukhei was out of his league (not that he didn’t already  _ know _ that but that didn’t make it hurt any less). 

“And, if you’re dating him, how come we’ve never seen him around?” All three of them were looking at him now and he felt oddly nervous about their gaze. He felt like he had to prove himself to them.    


“He goes to school an hour from here and he’s really busy so he hasn’t been able to visit.” It’s the truth but for some reason it sounds weak coming out of his mouth. Next to him, Renjun makes disapproving sound and goes back to eating, Jaemin doing the same while Jeno passes his phone back. 

“You know you don’t have to lie about having a boyfriend, Hyuckie, we don’t care about that.” He knows Jeno means well but that doesn’t stop his stomach from twisting and dropping. 

“But I’m not lying…” he suddenly feels emotional and he guesses that they notice because none of them push farther. They finish breakfast and leave together for their classes, splitting up once they reach the main campus. The day seems to drag on for Donghyuck, the pit in his stomach filling it up. 

They don’t bring it up for a while and Hyuck starts facetiming Yukhei away from his dorm but one day Yukhei calls him on a Wednesday, a day they hadn’t planned on calling, so Donghyuck doesn’t have time to leave before answering the call. 

The older boy is happy, talking loudly in a mix of languages and hand movements about this test that he had studied  _ forever _ for and had aced. He lets Yukhei do most of the talking, listening to the boy ramble on and on until he finally tires himself out. As he goes to hang up, Donghyuck blurts out an “I love you” but the call disconnects from Yukhei’s side. He can feel Renjun’s eyes burning a hole in the back of his head. 

“Hyuck, you don’t have to try so hard to make it look like you guys are dating, aren’t you a little embarrassed?” His chest tightens at Renjun’s words and he opens his mouth to reply but nothing comes out. A moment later, his phone buzzes and when he checks it, it’s a text from Yukhei. 

 

**[10:49pm]**

**Sushi ♡♡♡**

I accidentally hit the end button before I said I love you too!

I love you, Hyuckie!

 

Usually a text like this would make him smile but now the letters just hang heavy in Donghyuck’s mind. He goes to bed without replying. 

The thing that sucks is that Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin are great friends. Hyuck loves spending time with them because they all have the same humour and similar interests and they’re so easy to be around but he can’t let go of this one thing. He doesn’t have any close friends outside of them and he can’t talk to them about Yukhei which  _ really _ sucks now more than ever because they’re fighting. Yukhei has missed two weeks worth of calls and Donghyuck  _ tries to _ understand, he really does, but it hurts. They had  _ promised _ each other to always be ready for calls. Yukhei had promised him. 

And so one day when Donghyuck’s fed up, he calls Yukhei and the boy finally answers. They talk and the talking eventually turns into yelling, the two of them screaming at each other over the line. There’s people staring at Donghyuck as he walks to his dorm, crying over the phone because he’s felt so alone the past two weeks because of Yukhei’s absence. Crying because Yukhei  _ promised  _ to always call. Crying because Yukhei’s too busy for him now. Crying because Yukhei’s yelling and Yukhei  _ never _ yells. Finally, as he’s entering his dorm, Donghyuck just hangs up, ending the call in the middle of Yukhei’s shouting. He’s sobbing as he walks through the door, dropping his bag and sliding down the wall. He doesn’t realize his roommates are home until there’s commotion around him, people running to him, hands on his face, pulling him up and to the couch. 

They try to ask him what’s wrong but he just shakes his head, snuggling further into Jaemin’s chest, the younger boy holding him tightly and rubbing his back. They stay like that for a while until Donghyuck calms down enough to drink some water. He’s still crying but it’s silent this time, his eyes empty as tears roll down his cheeks.  Renjun tries again, asking him what happened and it takes him a moment to respond. 

“I think me and my boyfriend might break up.” He feels more than he sees the three share a look over his head before Renjun’s standing up. 

“Come on, Hyuck, let’s get to bed.” It’s barely even 8pm but Donghyuck follows easily, changing robotically into his pajamas and climbing into bed. Renjun stays for a little, carding his fingers through Hyuck’s hair before kissing his forehead and leaving him to sleep, but he never does. He just lays there in the dark, messing with his phone, scrolling through their old text messages, crying more. He lays in the dark for what feels like forever before someone knocks at the door and opens it. It’s Jeno, the older boy wearing a confused look on his face.

“Uh, someone’s looking for you? His name was Sushi or something like that?” It takes him a moment to process Jeno’s words but then Donghyuck’s sitting up straight up looking at him.

“What’d you just say?” Hyuck’s voice is soft and scratchy from crying so much and it’s filled with disbelief. Jeno clears his throat.

“I said some sushi boy is here and he’s--” Donghyuck all but runs out of the room before Jeno can finish his sentence. He makes it to the common area in their suite, Jeno trailing confused behind him, and stops, his feet refusing to move any farther because he’s there. Yukhei’s standing right there in the middle of the room, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot while Renjun and Jaemin stare him down. He makes a small sound in the back of his throat and Yukhei whips around to look at him and everything freezes. Yukhei looks distraught, his eyes lined red, and there’s so many emotions swirling through them that Donghyuck can’t even take them all in. He wonders briefly if Yukhei’s seeing the same thing in him and then he’s wrapped in Yukhei’s arms and all of that goes away. Yukhei’s holding him so tightly it almost hurts but Donghyuck clings back. He never wants to let go. They do, though, separating when someone else clears their throat and catches their attention.

Donghyuck had forgotten they had an audience. Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin are standing together, watching the two of them with furrowed brows, trying to put the pieces together. Renjun takes the reigns, taking a step forward and starting with the questioning.

“Who exactly are you?” Behind him, he can hear Jaemin whisper a  _ isn’t that the boy from the pictures? _ and he waits for the answer, foot tapping. Yukhei had been in such a rush to see Hyuck that he had basically just barged in, barely wasting time introducing himself to the other residents. He rubs the back of his head, embarrassed.

“Hi, I’m Yukhei, Hyuck’s boyfriend.” Behind Renjun, Jeno looks like his head is going to explode. Renjun and Jaemin don’t look much better, both of them sharing a shocked look before looking back at Donghyuck and Yukhei, the older’s eyes focusing on Yukhei’s hand where it rests possessively on Donghyuck’s hip.

“B-boyfriend?” Jeno’s having a hard time processing that and suddenly he feels like shit. For the past almost month, they had been holding this over Donghyuck’s head, accusing him of lying about having a boyfriend when, in reality, they were just too dumb to realize that the boy was telling the truth. All the jokes they had made about the boy’s “fake boyfriend” and all the times they told him to just stop with the fantasy. Jeno feels a little sick, thinking of how Donghyuck’s voice would get quiet anytime they called him a liar. “You mean that every time you said you were talking to your boyfriend you were…”

“Really talking to my boyfriend, yeah.” To his credit, Donghyuck seems more annoyed than upset now but the three knew they’d have to do a lot to make up for their behaviour. Next to him, Yukhei made a confused sound, looking to Hyuck for an explanation but Renjun beat him to it.

“We didn’t believe that Hyuck really had a boyfriend. We had never met you and the pictures didn’t look very convincing so…” he trails off, looking at Donghyuck before looking down at the floor. Yukhei picks up where he left off though.

“So you called him a liar,” he sounds mad and, honestly, it’s kind of scary with how tall he is, looming over most of them. Donghyuck puts his hand on Yukhei’s chest, calming him down.

“It’s fine Xuxi, I’m sure they’ll find a way to make it up to me,” he glances over at them quickly before turning back to his boyfriend, “besides, I think we should probably talk.” Yukhei nods seriously at that, and the two excuse themselves.

An hour passes before the three remaining boys decide to call it a night, Jeno and Jaemin heading to their respective rooms and Renjun heading to the one he shares with Donghyuck. He stands outside of the door for a minute, willing himself to finally open the door, praying he wouldn’t interrupt something or see something he wasn’t supposed to. The room is dark except for Hyuck’s desk lamp which is dimly lights up the room. In the low light, Renjun can see them.

They’re cuddled up on Hyuck’s bed, Yukhei on his back with Hyuck’s head on his chest. The older boy has one arm around Hyuck’s waist and his other hand is caught in the boy’s, their fingers laced together as they sleep, chests rising and falling in unison. Renjun feels almost like he’s intruding on an intimate moment and stops staring, changing quickly and turning off Hyuck’s light, getting into bed and facing the wall. 

Just as he’s about to fall asleep, he hears someone on the other bed shift before Yukhei whispers out a sweet “I love you”. Then the room goes silent, and everybody is back to sleep.


End file.
